Monday, July 28, 2008

Merrill to take $5.7 billion mortgage asset write-down

Merrill Lynch & Co Inc (MER.N) said it expects to take a $5.7 billion pretax write-down in the third quarter due to losses on the sale of mortgage assets and plans to raise at least $8.5 billion by selling new common shares.

Merrill said Singapore's Temasek Holdings Pte Ltd (TEM.UL) would buy $3.4 billion of the offering. Merrill has already taken billions of dollars in write-downs in past quarters and said it sold key holdings including a 20 percent stake in Bloomberg when it announced second-quarter earnings,

Merrill said on Monday it would pay $2.5 billion as required under a previous stock sale to state-run Temasek, along with $2.4 billion in required dividends to preferred shareholders. In previous deals to raise capital, Merrill had agreed that if it sold shares at too low a price in the future, it would reimburse investors.

The No. 3 Wall Street investment bank's shares were down 5 percent in after-hours trading after retreating 12 percent to $24.33 in the main trading session on the New York Stock Exchange.

Merrill also said it agreed to sell collateralized debt obligations with a face value of $30.6 billion for $6.7 billion to an affiliate of private equity fund Lone Star.

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